An Assessment of Force Protection Knowledge in Air Force Civil Engineer Officers

The purpose of this research was to assess force protection knowledge in Air Force civil engineer officers. Specifically, the research attempted to answer four specific research questions dealing with officers' understanding of force protection concepts and principles, effectiveness of current training, which training is effective and which needs improvement, and how officers feel about the training they receive and their ability to apply it to real world situations. The research consisted of 542 civil engineer officers taking a knowledge based survey that tested their force protection knowledge. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in force protection knowledge between officers who attended formal career field training and those who did not attend. However, the results indicated that two training courses did have significant positive influence on force protection knowledge for mid-level officer ranks. These results suggest that existing Air Force civil engineer training courses do not adequately teach force protection concepts.